Matches
by Light-Ace
Summary: Harry Potter AU. A school year told through Quidditch matches. Faberry. Karley. Brittana.


_This was originally intended for Brittana Week, but it ended up more Faberry than Brittana. The bias seeped in. My actual entries for Brittana Week are on my Tumblr (link on my profile) tagged under 'brittana week'._

* * *

"Your biggest fan's here, Cap," Kitty sneered as she swooped down beside Santana, who frowned slightly.

"Jealous?" she shot back, smirking at Kitty.

She snorted. "Hardly."

"Right. I forgot you're more inclined toward brunette Gryffindors."

Kitty flushed a deep crimson, and Santana laughed loudly as she flew off toward where her beaters and seeker were floating lazily in the air.

"Are you three going to do anything, or are you just content to be lazy assholes?" she snapped, aiming a kick at Puck's leg.

The other beater zoomed off, but Puck laughed and Rachel smiled indulgently at her. "Why are you so uptight this year?" she asked as Santana made to shove Puck off his broom; he quickly made a decision to fly away.

"Because if we aren't at our best, Ravenclaw is going to beat us again," Santana growled, and Rachel tweaked an eyebrow.

"Well, maybe they wouldn't, if you'd ban their captain from our practices."

Santana frowned confused, and Rachel responded by pointing down at the stands. She followed the motion to see that – sure enough – Quinn was seated beside Brittany in the stands, looking for all the world as if she belonged there.

With a frustrated noise, Santana aimed her broom now toward the stands and shot off toward where her two best friends were sitting, ignoring Rachel's laughter behind her.

"What are you doing here, Fabray?" Santana snapped as soon as she was within earshot. "I told you to stay away from my practices."

Quinn smiled brightly up at her, much to Santana's fury. "Relax. I'm not here to spy on you. We can beat you without sinking to your level."

"She's here to watch Rachel," Brittany chirped helpfully, and Quinn paled before turning a violent shade of purple.

Santana barked a laugh and leaned forward on her arms to grin tauntingly at Quinn, who looked like she wanted to sink down through the stands and fall to her death. "And here I was worried you were here to spy. Well, there is something you want to spy, and lord knows she's sitting still enough for you to get a good look."

As Quinn let out an indignant squeak, Santana flashed Brittany a wink and flew off to rejoin the other chasers.

"Did you kill her?" Kitty asked as soon as she reached them, peering curiously down at Quinn.

"A little," Santana replied with a smirk. "Now, c'mon, we actually have to practice sometime today."

* * *

Quinn easily weaved between the other players as she chased the Snitch around the field. It was the first match of the season and she was determined to win the Quidditch Cup for Ravenclaw again this year. However, this year she had been presented with a problem she hadn't had to contend with last year: Rachel Berry was the Slytherin seeker this year.

She'd been chaser last year, but as the previous year's seeker had graduated, she'd moved to seeker instead. Which presented two problems for Quinn.

One, Rachel was a damn good seeker.

Two, Quinn occasionally had trouble looking away from her long enough to find the Snitch.

Quinn stretched her arm as far as she could, scrabbling at the Snitch just an inch too short. She felt movement by her leg and tucked her body in as close to her broom as she could; you could never trust Slytherins, even if they were utterly adorable and innocent-looking. After all, they'd been sorted into Slytherin for a reason.

She made another lurch for the Snitch, felt cold metal under her fingers, and could have fainted with relief. Another win for Ravenclaw.

The Snitch held aloft, she pulled up to a stop in the air, and the blue corner of the stands went wild, as well as some parts of the red and yellow.

Rachel stopped next to her, and punched her shoulder affectionately. "Next time, Fabray," she said before diving down to where Santana and the rest of the team was landing.

The rest of the Ravenclaw team collided into her happily, and she almost fell off her broom where her grip had slackened while she'd been dreamily watching Rachel leave.

* * *

The next match was between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, and Quinn unfortunately found herself sitting between Santana and Kitty, who always almost came to blows over the match, sometimes even before the match was over.

"Help," Quinn squeaked under her breath, sinking low in her seat when Santana and Kitty took to screaming at each other again.

Someone pushed at her shoulder, and she looked to see who it was as her body tilted sideways. She grinned when she saw Rachel wedging herself beside Quinn between the angry Slytherins.

"You looked like you were about to scream," she said, and Quinn had to all but read her lips over the yelling around them. As such, she simply settled on a wide grin as her response.

There was a loud gasp from the entire crowd, and everyone's heads jerked up to the sky where the two seekers were blurs racing across the field. Quinn squinted and could just make out the gold speck that was the snitch whizzing along in front of them.

Kitty was screaming at the top of her lungs now and jumping up and down like a complete moron, not that she really seemed to care right now.

"Marley's gonna catch it," Rachel said confidently into Quinn's ear, and sure enough, less than a minute later, Marley was holding the snitch up and grinning and Kitty was yelling something incomprehensible and pulling Rachel and Quinn into a tight hug as she screamed excitedly in their ears.

Behind them, Santana let out a humph of disappointment.

* * *

Unsurprisingly, Santana spent the week before the match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff slipping snide comments into conversation in an attempt to throw Quinn off her game, which included but were not limited to Rachel, Rachel, and oh you guessed it, Rachel.

But Quinn was more than used to it by this point, and she had actually learned to take amusement in it. Brittany had just smiled at her every time, and wished her good luck before they split up into their locker rooms before the match.

She caught the snitch fifteen minutes into the match, and Brittany tackled her in a hug before anyone from her team could. Back on the ground, Santana frowned at her for a full minute before giving in and hugging her.

* * *

Brittany joined Quinn in the Ravenclaw corner of the stands as the two teams mounted their brooms. "I'd ask who you were betting on to win, but then I realized that was a pointless question," she said cheerfully. "Have you talked to Rachel recently?"

"A little," Quinn replied, distracted by the grin she could see Kitty stifling as she caught Marley's eye. "She's been practicing a lot, as you know, but we've been talking a bit in Potions."

The whistle was blown, and the players kicked off in unison. Quinn watched Rachel as she soared high above the field and began squinting around for the snitch; Marley weaved around not far off, looking around as well.

"They're both good seekers," Brittany remarked as Santana knocked into Sugar, who dropped the Quaffle into Kitty's waiting hands. "It's just a matter of who sees the Snitch first."

Quinn clicked her tongue as Kitty ducked a Bludger from Blaine. "Rachel's a lot different from last year's seeker. I thought he was going to knock me off my broom more than once last year."

There was a quiet hum of agreement from Brittany, but it was largely drowned out by the crowd around them.

The match went on for ten minutes – Slytherin was winning – without any sight of the snitch before anything interesting happened.

There was a celebratory yell from the Gryffindor corner, a loud smack from a beater's bat, and then a sudden collide of green and a lot of screaming.

"The hell's going on?" Quinn asked as the whistle sounded.

Brittany craned her neck and squinted. "I'm not sure, but Marley's got the snitch. C'mon."

She tugged on Quinn's hand, and the two of them stumbled down to the field. The rest of the Gryffindor team was landing as they sprinted out to where Santana and Rachel were trying their best to pull Kitty off of Puck.

"You asshole!" she screeched as Quinn and Brittany hurried to help restrain her. "The game was over! She already had the Snitch!"

Puck, whose nose was bleeding profusely, roared back, "It was a fucking _mistake_! Thanks to you, now I'm in worse shape than she is!"

"What happened?" Quinn asked as Santana moved instead to calm Puck.

Kitty sagged but continued to glare at Puck's head. "He hit a Bludger at Marley after the game was over."

The other three exchanged matching looks, then Brittany released her hold on Kitty's arm and nudged her in the shoulder instead. "Go check on her."

Kitty balked, but after a little shoving from Quinn and Rachel, she finally acquiesced.

"Ah, young love," Rachel said with a dreamy sigh as she leaned on Quinn's shoulder, who in turn looked like she was about to faint.

Brittany snickered and sidled off to soothe her girlfriend.

* * *

Slytherin versus Hufflepuff matches were always interesting to watch, although not for the reasons everyone seemed to think. Santana and Brittany were always civil to each other and made sure their teams were too – more Slytherin than Hufflepuff, obviously – and the matches were just as brutal as a Slytherin verses Gryffindor match.

The day of the match, Marley joined Quinn in the Ravenclaw stands, a green and silver scarf wrapped around her neck and a megawatt smile on her face.

"You look happy," Quinn said with a sly grin as she patted the seat beside her. "How are things with Kitty?"

Marley ducked her head in an attempt to hide her blush. "She's great," she mumbled giddily. "I've always been told Slytherins are terrible, but she's amazing."

"They do have their moments," Quinn agreed, watching Santana – who usually knew no boundaries on the Quidditch field – not take the opportunity to drive an elbow into an opposing chaser's ribs.

The Quaffle flew past Jake's outstretched fingers for ten points to Slytherin, and Kitty high-fived Rachel as she flew past her to where Sam had caught the Quaffle.

Marley smiled dreamily up at her girlfriend. "So what about you and Rachel?"

"What _about_ me and Rachel?" Quinn asked blankly, not taking her eyes on the match.

"How are things with you guys?"

Quinn frowned, confused, before she realized what Marley was getting at and immediately flushed hotly. "Um, w-we're not together or anything," she spluttered, and she suspected she looked like an overripe tomato.

Marley's mouth dropped into an 'o', and she also flushed darkly. "Oh, um, I'm sorry. I just assumed–" She flapped her hands around in an attempt to convey her thoughts, and Quinn couldn't help but smile shakily at the sight; Marley could be quite adorable.

"It's okay," she said quietly, and the two of them smiled awkwardly at each other.

For a while, they sat in more than a bit awkward silence as they watch the game, then Marley said suddenly, "She likes you."

Quinn tilted her head to the side and furrowed her brows. "Yeah?" Marley nodded energetically. "Maybe, then."

A cheer went up from the green corner of the stands, and Quinn looked back at the field to see Rachel holding the Snitch up triumphantly. Quinn grinned widely and cheered, and she swore Rachel winked at her.

* * *

It was ninety-nine percent because of Marley that Gryffindor had made it to the finals, Quinn knew. The seeker all but made the team; if you had an awesome one, it was more likely that the team would win more matches.

Marley, however, had vehemently denied that it was because of her, and where her head was resting on her girlfriend's shoulder, Kitty gave a good-natured roll of her eyes at her modesty.

But Quinn was an excellent seeker herself – completely objectively here – and while the rest of the Ravenclaw team was excellent, the Gryffindors were largely lacking.

Bets were made – Santana bet against Ravenclaw, largely to just piss her off – and everyone arrived at the stadium the day of the game anticipating a thrilling match.

Gryffindors were honest and the complete and utter opposite of Slytherins, so it was easy to walk into a Gryffindor match prepared. It was an honest match; no tricks.

Everything came down to who was the better team, and unsurprisingly, it was Ravenclaw.

The Snitch folded its wings back, and Quinn hit the ground at a run. Immediately, Mike tackled into her and almost knocked her to the ground.

As the rest of the team touched down nearby, the rest of the Ravenclaws in the stands came flooding onto the field, but she was only looking for a specific few.

Kitty gave her a congratulatory grin through the throng of blue and silver before wading through to meet her girlfriend, and then Quinn spotted Rachel.

After shoving her broom into a surprised Artie's hands, she bounded across to Rachel and swept her up in her arms before kissing her soundly on the lips. Instantly, the sound of the crowd dimmed, and it was like fireworks went off in Quinn's head.

When they parted, Quinn couldn't help the goofy grin that was plastered across her face. A loud whistle sounded, which could only be Santana, but Quinn's good mood didn't falter in the slightest.

"Took you long enough, Fabray," Rachel said with a wide grin, before palming both of her cheeks and pulling their faces together again.


End file.
